Clark County to pay $10.5M to two men exonerated in rape case

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VANCOUVER, Wash. – Clark County officials have agreed to settle a multimillion dollar lawsuit involving two men previously exonerated on rape charges.

According to the Seattle Times, the county has agreed to pay Larry W. Davis and Alan G. Northrup $5.25 million. Both men were imprisoned for 17 years after being wrongly convicted of rape.

The two were convicted in the attack on a housekeeper in 1993.

The Seattle Times reports that case evidence in the 2012 civil rights suit showed that Clark County Sheriff’s Office detective Donald Slagle showed the housekeeper pictures of Davis and Northrup before an official lineup.

Slagle’s notes from the case, found in department archives, included names of other possible suspects that he denied knowing about during testimony.

Attorneys say the Sheriff’s Office hid the fact that the victim in the case was also the subject of an embezzlement investigation.

A Clark County judge overturned Davis and Northrup’s conviction in 2010.

The civil suit settlement comes just before the case was to be heard by a jury in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.